


Practice

by Chaneladdict



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Awkward club chatter is awkward, F/M, I ship Steve with everyone, M/M, Steve discovers bisexuality, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-19
Updated: 2014-07-19
Packaged: 2018-02-09 13:49:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1985250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaneladdict/pseuds/Chaneladdict
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Natasha go clubbing and awkwardness ensues. Could be called 'And Steve discovers bisexuality?' But titles smitles.</p>
<p>Instead of the two flirty twenty something’s she’d left him with, Steve was now standing laughing heartily with a guy, a tall, brunette guy who was all but making heart eyes in Cap’s direction. Natasha was torn between head-desking at their table and pulling up a chair and attempting to find a snack, eager to see just where this development was going to go. Did Steve even know what was happening in front of him, she’d wager that he didn’t, but then again just because was an old-old fashioned guy didn’t mean that the men then didn’t do the do in world war two.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Practice

It wasn’t that Steve was a prude; not really. It was just that his life was strange and about seventy years too late for ‘his hay day’ to be taking place. Born in the late teens of the last century will do that to a guy, he thought.

Most people looked at him as an old fashioned icon of the past, that somehow he was meant to have lived and learned in the years he spent on ice, when the truth was the farthest thing from living and learning. To him, the war was still raging, and Bucky had died merely days before he woke up. He didn’t wake with knowledge of this world as it was now, and having the better part of a century to play catch up on was overwhelming at times to say the least.

But, like most things in his life that scared him, Steve faced it head on, after the Battle of New York he threw himself into SHIELD life, into life as a sort-of solider once more. It was something familiar, in the world of unfamilars. He played catch up on the last several decades and it became a hobby of sorts, learning about everything he missed out on, trying to absorb it rather than letting it take him over.

One of the many things he was catching up on, and this was more at Natasha’s insistence than anything he personally thought he needed by the way, was his love life.

Love life.

As if that was even possible anymore!

She was persistent and insistent that he make use of his new body that she knew he ‘never really got to test run before’, and that it ‘would be a shame to waste all that chivalrous muscle’ on nights alone with Chinese food. So when she quite literally dragged him out to a club – unlike anything he’d ever seen – but then again, most things were even though he’d never admit it out loud, he was nervous.

“You’ll do great, we lost the granddad pants which are a major plus here, and jeans are a really good look on you, Rodgers.” She said into his ear as they stood waiting for their drinks. He just felt clammy and uncomfortable, and the drink was pointless as it wouldn’t help him at all! She had mildly suggested dark jeans and a white button up, though why he couldn’t have just worn the items SHIELD had provided him with when he woke up, he had no idea. But again, Natasha insisted and he knew that if the Black Widow got her mind set on something there was very little use in arguing with her, she would, one way or another get her way.

She reminded him of Bucky in that regard. A lot of things she did reminded him of Bucky, but then, most things did if he looked hard enough. He missed his friend, and he assumed it was a normal part of the severely delayed grieving process.

Several drinks and a few hilariously awful attempts to get him on the dance floor Natasha casually having scoped out the bar pointed him in the direction of a very cute brunette standing at the bar with her friend having a drink, no was his first thought, he would be bothering her was his second.

Tasha just rolled her eyes and all but dragged him up there mumbling something about ‘practice makes perfect’ that made him even more uncomfortable. They stood awkwardly awaiting drinks for a few minutes and when they were served, he was asked to offer them a drink.

He couldn’t.

He wouldn’t.

Annoying Natasha was the best part of his night thus far if he was being honest; her mission to get him laid wasn’t subtle nor endearing any longer.

“Ladies, having a nice night?” she asked with a big overly friendly and because Steve knew her, a completely foreign smile on her face. They chitter chatted for a few minutes, as Steve awkwardly sipped his beer.

He just wanted to go home and read.

“Karly and Sarah have you met my friend Steve. He works for the government.” Natasha said with a smile before she took a sip of her vodka martini.

Smiling awkwardly they asked what he did, he told them he was an asset of the US government, without outright saying ‘Hey I’m Captain America’, and they didn’t seem to recognise him which was a plus. He tried his best to keep the conversation about them, as Tasha suggested, women liked it when you were interested in them, she said. And, in a way it was perfect because it meant he didn’t have to talk so much.

Just perfect.

^^^

She had chaperoned him the majority of the night, so leaving him in the capable hands of the brunette and her red headed friend. Natasha felt that he’d be safe enough with them as she finished her drink and made a few phone calls outside the club, ignoring the come-ons from the guy in the blue shirt most of the night while she was at it. She had a mission and it wasn’t about getting her laid, at least, not that night.

When she got back she wasn’t sure she was believing what she was seeing, but she couldn’t have been gone more than twenty minutes, surely he couldn’t have messed things up that badly in twenty minutes, right?

Wrong.

Instead of the two flirty twenty something’s she’d left him with, Steve was now standing laughing heartily with a guy, a tall, brunette guy who was all but making heart eyes in Cap’s direction. Natasha was torn between head-desking at their table and pulling up a chair and attempting to find a snack, eager to see just where this development was going to go. Did Steve even know what was happening in front of him, she’d wager that he didn’t, but then again just because was an old-old fashioned guy didn’t mean that the men then didn’t do the do in world war two.

Huh, maybe he wasn’t as wholesome as he appeared; she thought as she watched what appeared to be Steve Rogers flirting with another guy, so much at ease that it was beautiful.

&&&&

He had sort of crashed and burned with the girls… ladies… women! That Natasha had picked out, and it was only sort of some of his fault. He couldn’t or didn’t want to go into too much about his job, so they turned to hobbies and he couldn’t really go into too much about that either because he didn’t know the music they were talking about, he only vaguely knew what some of the activities they engaged in were called and he was failing to keep up with the conversation until, eventually they got bored.

He could hear Peggy now, clipped and proper scowling him about his inability to talk to women, he guessed in the 40s or the new century, not a whole lot really changes.

That’s when he met Doug. Doug was easy to talk to, Steve knew some things about sports in this time, he knew a little about New York – which Doug was new to, in a way just like Steve but not really, and so they started talking. And then Doug bought him a drink and he kept on talking. He liked Doug. Though he wondered just where in the hell Natasha had gone, he found that after a while, talking with this guy helped to distract him from the crippling discomfort he was feeling.

But that’s when it happened.

It wasn’t entirely sure how it happened, but it most certainly did.

They had gone from bonding over the craziness that was the big city to somehow, Doug’s hand on Steve’s thigh as they start on bar stools facing the other, to Doug leaning in and kissing Steve.

It wasn’t that it was unwelcomed, just very surprising. There they were out in public, in front of hoards of people drunk and sober, and he was perfectly fine and safe feeling he could do such a thing. It was a little awkward, missing his mouth by a centimetre at first; he had leaned in as Steve was mid-sentence about how high the subway prices were now! So, it really wasn’t Steve’s fault, but instead of putting Doug off, it encouraged a shy smile while he tried again. Steve was sure somewhere in the back of his mind that he should step away, that he should take the warm soft and at this point travelling hands off his thighs, walk away and never speak of it again. But, a bigger part of him didn’t want to. So, he would practice like Natasha said, but she didn’t say specifically whom he had to practice on, right? He was out of practice that’s for sure, all goofy movements and maybe too much teeth? There was a lot of tongue and that was … new. It was nice, but strange. You didn’t French a girl unless you were goin’ steady, he remembered that much from Bucky, though the way he told it, Bucky spoke fluent French to half the girls in Brooklyn with no intention of ever making it a steady thing. So maybe that’s how it was now, more open, more … just more.

Pulling back a little breathless even for him, he was sure he was beet red and terrified looking, but whatever Doug saw, he liked as he programmed his number into Steve’s phone and asked if he could see him again. He just nodded incoherently as he watched him walk away, right before he felt who he knew to be his absent red-headed friend poke him in the side.

“Well, well, well… it looks like I was going about this whole thing the wrong way, Cap.”

He refused to blush, refused damn it. That didn’t stop the flush in his cheeks though and he knew she saw it. Instead of teasing him or mocking him, she just clinked her glass to hers with a smile before kissing him on the cheek.

“Well come on Captain, Mission report?”

He couldn’t help the smile on his face as he retold her his tale. And that, as far as he could tell was a good thing.

A really good thing.


End file.
